So I probably should’ve written this about a week and a half ago, after I got on a bit of a roll and fixed a lot of key problems with the the build as it was. Real life caught up for a while and now I’m trying to remember thought processes and to-do lists from ten days ago, and it’s a little difficult.Continue reading →

[FYI: A test version of Radiata is live on http://smimons.itch.io/radiata. It’s since been built on, but if you want to have a go of a rough version, I hope you like it.]

And so begins the potential rabbit-hole stage of tinkering and iteration.

At the end of the last bit of work, things were starting to take shape. A simple gameplay loop existed (keep the ball alive for as long as possible), along with a fairly rudimentary difficulty curve, and it was actually feeling like a ‘game’, but there were still a few major kinks to iron out. Continue reading →

As if I need more interests or hobbies to compete with my time, I’m making a videogame. A proper, real actually playable game. I recently threw together a text-adventure using the Twine engine, but obviously text games have limits. I want to make something mechanical and ‘gamey’.

I’m taking up this weird challenge party because I obviously really enjoy and appreciate games and want to contribute in some way, partly because it’s been a long time since I feel I have applied my brain to learning a new skill (Up until a month ago, I had zero knowledge of game development or coding), but mainly just because I think it will be fun. Here goes nothing. How hard can it be? Continue reading →

I obsess over details even when I don’t fully understand the bigger picture. I genuinely, without any sense of irony or sarcasm, love graphs and data and tracking stuff, percentages, facts and figures, variables and numbers! Oh man, I fucking love numbers. One night, I remember trying to find out what the biggest factorial I could work out in my head was (13! Pretty happy with that!). What a catch. And I try to apply that to as many things as I can.

I have been known to use projection analysis and averages to work out just how long I will have to grind at an RPG to reach a requiste level. I get upset when a game tracks my progress and tells me I am 67% complete, because that means I’m nearly finished and I was really enjoying this game! The only reason I recently commited to a budget plan was that I was told I could use a spreadsheet. I excel at those….

I am a starter of things. A collector of hobbies. Compulsively grass-is-greener and oh-so-fucking-easily distracted. I lack possibly every modicum of discipline and self-control. Basically, I’m a big fucking child. Honestly, I can hardly walk down the aisle of a supermarket without thinking “Ooh, I AM really in the mood for a pomegranate. In you go..”, “Now, I don’t need half a dozen jars of salsa, but at that price, I’d be crazy not to.” No dude, you already are crazy.

I am an advertiser’s dream. I sell shit to myself. Just point me at something and tell me that it’s slightly different to the thing that came before it and I’m golden. And then something else comes along and I drop the original thing, whatever it may be, and leave it to collect dust whilst I get my “THIS IS NEW AND SHINY AND COOL!” kicks from the new thing. Then that wears off and the cycle repeats itself. It’s financial masturbation, and I know it’s wrong but-OH-LOOK-A-SALE! Deferred gratification is not my bag.

Fair Warning – There will be spoilers detailing the story of Spec Ops: The Line in the post, after the jump.

There’s very unsettling moment about half way through 2010’s Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days. Having surrendered to the chief antagonist of the game, Kane, Lynch and Lynch’s girlfriend, Xui are subjected to an awful amount of off-screen torture. You regain control of Lynch – who, having been assumed dead – wakes up in a dumpster, naked and bleeding from dozens of deep lacerations all over his body. It’s grimy stuff. Proceeding back into bathroom where the torture took place, you stumble upon Xui’s body, the full extent of her torture obscured via pixelisation, a great use of the games found-footage visual style, all red and brown and black and blue leaving just enough to the imagination to suggest a deplorable level of sadism, but one that is still hidden, protecting the player..

I always used to scoff at my friends who talked about chalking up hundreds and hundreds of hours on World of Warcraft, as I never really encountered what it might feel like to be addicted to a video game. I never really realised that a video game of all things could devour more time and attention from my day than anything else on my schedule. I always used to laugh at the stereotype view of ‘gamer nerds’, hunched over their screens, forsaking meals lest they miss out on one precious hour of time in a game world.

But then, I decided not to eat dinner one night, I figured I was too busy hunting down the next big important piece of loot from a dungeon. Then I knew what it felt like to have a game pretty much take over your life. Then I knew where stereotypes come from. Then I knew I was addicted to Skyrim. Something had to be done. Continue reading →

You have to hand it to Nintendo. The release and massive popularity of the Wii exposed millions of ‘normal people’ to the gaming world and really heralded a change in the landscape. Fanboys and fanatics will probably argue this was a bad move, as it diluted a somewhat niche and hardcore community with an influx of casual games that ‘arent proper games’.

Whilst not a big fan of casual games, I have to disagree. The fact is, a large amount of this new audience soon got tired of dance simulators and virtual fitness coaches, and stuck around at the party to see what else gaming had to offer. Continue reading →

FAIR WARNING! There will be SPOILERS regarding the ending of ME3, and some of the plot points from previous ME games. I’ll try not to be too specific, but if you’ve haven’t played ME3 to its end, or have been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks and don’t already know what all this ending fuss is about, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!